Bad news for me. PECO (my utility company) says the power could very well be out for four days! Which means blogging will be a major pain in the ass. I'm sitting here at the nearest WIFI spot, and lucky to have a place to sit (obviously, this is what a lot of people are doing with their power down). PECO says I'll know tomorrow morning whether I'll be off for four days. If I am still down in the morning, it means four more days.

I just found out about the Virginia shooting, which is a horrible outrage. I don't know why or how this creep got away with lining up students and shooting them, and all I can say is it's a shame an armed student wasn't among the potential targets.

In Glenn Reynolds' roundup he links the WaPo story, this report that the legislature has been trying to get a CCW bill passed, but failed, and Pajamas Media's roundup. And Clayton Cramer opines,

This is why I try to be armed anywhere that I legally can be armed. This is exactly the situation where one armed student, faculty, or staff could have cut this short.

Michelle Malkin links this group of Virginia bloggers, who are posting reports as they get them, and Drudge quotes this "Sky News Bulletin":

SKY NEWS: Witnesses said he was heavily armed and entered the college looking for his girlfriend... He reportedly lined up students and opened fire at them. He was said to be an Asian, in his mid-20s...

I also see it as an argument against the sort of thinking that Friday's Philadelphia Inquirer saw fit to glorify on Friday's front page. Headlined "'55 school killer: A life taken, lived -- Film spotlights Swarthmore, forgiveness.," it's about a film glorifying forgiveness in the setting of a 1955 shooting at Swarthmore College:

At Swarthmore College on Jan. 11, 1955, Bob Bechtel shot and killed a fellow student, Francis Holmes Strozier. One bullet, from a .22-caliber rifle, in the head.

Five years later, Bechtel was at Susquehanna University, pursuing a degree in psychology.

[...]

Found not guilty by reason of insanity, the 22-year-old Bechtel was sent to Farview State Hospital, in Waymart, Wayne County. One factor that swayed the judge: a letter from Strozier's mother, expressing sympathy and forgiveness. Another: In 1950, the teenage Bechtel, at his mother's request, had been briefly hospitalized for psychotic episodes.

Four years and eight months after the sentencing, Bechtel was released. He went to Susquehanna and then to the University of Kansas, where he earned a doctorate and began his teaching career. Until his daughter Carrah turned 19, the only person in his life who knew of the murder was Bev, his wife. Then he decided to tell his daughters, his friends, his colleagues at the University of Arizona, and his students.

Alston's film is about Bechtel's revelation, and its aftershocks. It is a story about forgiveness and guilt and, by extension, about Columbine, Nickel Mines, and other school massacres that have left their bloody mark on the nation.

It is about a life lived. And a life not lived.

"If you're for the death penalty and say you believe in God, what do you do with the good that can come from a life?" said documentarian Alston, who met Carrah Bechtel when both were students at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Carrah had approached Alston with the idea for a film.

"When I think of all the people who are locked away and weigh the good that they can do against the bad that they have done, I'm left with this trouble in my heart," Alston said during an interview last fall at the Toronto International Film Festival.

For Carrah Bechtel, 32, the discovery that her father was a murderer opened a floodgate.

"I actually couldn't comprehend what he was telling me, and still can't - that he is that person," said the self-described writer/actor/baker/songwriter, who lives with her older half sister, Amanda, in Kansas City. It made her realize that she might not be here at all if her father had been sentenced to death, or to a long term behind bars.

"Every day, I question my existence," she said, also in Toronto. "There are people in the asylum that let my father go, the mother that forgave my father - people who didn't know it at the time, but [they] created life. Desmond Tutu has a book: No Future Without Forgiveness. And forgiveness creates future. . . . That's my perspective."

"Out of respect for the Strozier family and our alumni from the time, and for the sake of accuracy, the Swarthmore administration objects to Robert Bechtel's misleading portrayal of the events of 1955. . . . Prof. Bechtel appears to attribute the shooting solely or primarily to 'bullying' perpetrated by his fellow students. Holmes Strozier was a completely innocent victim, and no one can watch the film without being moved by the nobility and generosity of his family."

While it's nice to know that the Swarthmore shooter turned his life around, I'm not sure how that is an argument for forgiving other killers. Moreover, in logic I think that the only people possessed of the right to forgive a criminal are his victims.

But these forgiveness stories persist, and it's a bit hard to forget the one from Friday, because it was still fresh in my mind when I heard about today's horror.

Philosophically speaking, what has forgiveness to do with punishment? Some crimes are so awful that perhaps they should never be forgiven. Where is the line drawn? Is it by the numbers killed? If we should forgive a guy who killed one man, then why not a guy who killed 32? How about Eichmann?

Sorry, but I can't forgive any of them. Not unless they shoot me, and of course I would hope I might be able to stop them.

Which leads me to the most annoying aspect of the forgive-the-shooters argument. Those who want to forgive these criminals want to do more than just forgive them and help them avoid punishment. What really adds insult to injury is something I touched on in an earlier post. Those in the forgiving school don't want people to defend themselves against the shooters. They want everyone disarmed. Then, after people shot, they can lecture the survivors about "forgiveness."

Forgive me if I consider that unforgivable.

UPDATE: This story reports two incidents:

The shootings took place in two separate incidents, which police have not yet confirmed are related.

An unidentified man is arrested. It is unclear what role he played in the shooting. Sources in University Relations told the student newspaper there may have been two arrests.

It's too early to tell what the hell happened.

MORE: However, I don't like the sound of this report:

Little is known of the gunman who carried out the assault other than vague references by some students to him as Asian looking. Authorities confirmed he was not carrying any identification, and there was no word on how he prepared and carried out the attack.

But fingers were already being pointed at the gun culture prevalent in the state of Virginia and in particular at Virginia Tech University which is home to a proud tradition of military cadets.

MORE: While admitting no one knows what motivated the killer or killers, an expert has already been interviewed by Newsweek, and he claims he knows:

NEWSWEEK: You've studied mass shootings for more than 20 years. What's the first thing you think of when a story like this starts unfolding?
Jack Levin: I can talk in general terms about this and I'm probably going to be right. In almost every case the motive is revenge. Usually the killer is on a suicidal rampage--he sets out to take his own life but first he takes his revenge on all the people he believes to be responsible for his miseries. Usually the killer has suffered from some catastrophic loss; it could be a girlfriend, a loss of a place in the university--assuming he's a student or faculty. Either way, in his eyes, it's catastrophic. It's the trigger, the catalyst, what pushes him over the edge.

I get the impression that some people in the reporting business already know more than is being reported.

MORE: The Virginia Tech Korean Students Association reported that a Korean student was among those injured, but expressed doubt that the shooter was Korean:

"I have been calling other members of the student association and were not told of other Korean victims," [association president] Lee said.

Park was in the middle of a lecture with 15 or so other classmates when the shooter started firing, Lee quoted him as saying. It wasn't clear how many others survived.

The shooter is said to be a young Asian male, but Lee said chances are low he is a Korean.

"I don't believe any of the Korean students own a gun," he said.

The South Korean embassy dispatched one of its staff members to the university to gather details.

But I'm sure guns will be blamed. And victims will be urged to "forgive."

MORE: According to Wizbang, the guy pictured on the ground may not be a suspect at all, but a student photographer:

he guy in the picture above, who many thought to be a suspect, appears to be a student photographer with the school newspaper. Early reports said the shooter was Asian so apparently the officer stopped him. As far as we know there is no second shooter.

MORE: According to this ABC report the killer blew his face off, and they have been unable to identify him.

There don't appear to be any definitive answers. It's an awful thing, and all I can do is express my sorrow for the victims.

AND MORE: From the looks of this ABC report, the shooter's name seems to be known to the police:

A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33.

Students bitterly complained that there were no public-address announcements on campus after the first burst of gunfire. Many said the first word they received from the university was an e-mail more than two hours into the rampage -- around the time the gunman struck again.

Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said authorities believed that the shooting at the dorm was a domestic dispute and mistakenly thought the gunman had fled the campus.

"We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur," he said.

He defended the university's handling of the tragedy, saying: "We can only make decisions based on the information you had on the time. You don't have hours to reflect on it."

Investigators offered no motive for the attack. The gunman's name was not immediately released, and it was not known if he was a student.

I have to say, not being able to get the news is the most challenging aspect of blogging.

MORE: The emails sent to the students are here.

And that's it for this post, as I have to leave the WIFI spot now.

UPDATE (04/17/07): My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for linking this post. Welcome all!

My power is back up, and I have a few more thoughts about why reporting the facts as soon as possible is a good idea.